You'll never guess how tomato sauce was invented

Aussies have a long love affair with the red condiment. We've been slathering it on sausage rolls, meat pies, burgers, hot dogs, steaks and more for what feels like eternity.

While you think you might know everything there is to know about tomato sauce, the truth is you probably don’t know much, besides the fact it’s made with tomatoes and a whole heap of sugar.

But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, the original tomato sauce recipe (aka ketchup), didn’t contain any tomatoes at all. It was made from fish guts….

Huh?!

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Yep! The first recorded recipe was made from fish intestines, bladder, stomach and salt. It was then combined in a jar and left to rot in the sun for 20 days. Yum!

And believe it or not, this recipe originated in China and dates back to the sixth century.

British and Dutch explorers discovered the fermented fish paste during their 17th century travels in South-East Asia and immediately fell in love with the stuff.

They brought it back to Europe and began to tweak the recipe, making their own versions with ingredients like beer, mushrooms, walnuts, oysters, strawberries and peaches.

In no time, tomato sauce became a household staple on the English table and eventually found its way to America.

It was here where horticulturalist James Mease thought about adding tomatoes to the recipe and BOOM, tomato sauce as we know it was born.

It began popping up all over the country and eventually the globe, and in 1812, it was declared the condiment of the world by The New York Times.

And there you go. That’s the history of our beloved red sauce.

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